


palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss

by SebGray



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1980s, Alternate Universe - High School, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Romeo and Juliet References, Shakespeare Quotations, Slow Burn, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:49:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SebGray/pseuds/SebGray
Summary: Leia is desperate. Auditions for this year's school play have been awful, and the last thing she wants is to cast the wrong people. But when Poe Dameron comes in for a late audition, and Rey is volunteered to read with him, the two end up together despite their best intentions.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 12
Kudos: 39





	1. if i profane with my unworthiest hand

Leia was gathering her notes as she watched Luke and Rey measure the stage in order to get the numbers for the set schematics just right. As Luke directed Rey with the unwinding end of the measuring tape, she listened to one of Han’s old tapes on her Walkman. Once Leia performed her loud exaggerated sigh that said  _ I need to rant before I fucking freak _ , Luke said, “Alright, what’s the issue now, Leia?”

“I’m looking at my notes from the auditions,” she said as she pushed a rogue curl from her falling-apart beehive.

“How screwed are you?”

Leia tossed him a glare from above her glasses. “ _ We _ are both fucked.”

Luke sighed. He turned to Rey as she signed  _ 24 _ with one hand. He let go as the tape wound back to her. As he turned to walk offstage -- Rey was an expert at this point, she could handle measuring the stage by herself -- he said, “How bad were they? Because I thought we couldn’t get worse than last year.”

“We managed,” said Leia, head in one hand. “The only good candidates for Juliet are Jenny James, the one freshman girl in my theatre class -- sweetheart, but she has the stage presence of wet beige paint -- and Dawn Michaels.”

“Why not Dawn?” Luke asked as he settled into the seat next to her, in the front row. “She was great last year.”

“That’s the problem. She’s great but she hates it. All she wants to do is teach history, but the poor girl’s mother makes her do acting because the woman wanted to be a famous Hollywood actress but her parents forced her to become a secretary. The irony abounds.”

“So she can’t do it this year?”

Leia glared at him again. This time he was close enough to feel the scalding heat behind her eyes. “No, Luke, she can’t. The only reason I know this is because she broke down in the dressing room after everyone left opening night because her mother screamed at her for flubbing a line no one except her even noticed.”

“Ah. I see.” Luke nodded, sighing. “Anyone else?”

“Oh, the usual airheads who want to be Juliet because they have a crush on a potential Romeo. All overacting and melodramatic. They’re so bad not even a soap opera would cast them.” Leia flipped through the coffee-stained legal pad again. “And could you believe the Romeos were even worse?”

“How bad were they?”

“I swear to the heavens, if I get another wannabe Laurence Olivier over-pronouncing every scene like it’s his job to do so, I am going to drop dead. Every single one of them reads Shakespeare the same way.” She sat up straight, arm held out like she was grasping Yorick’s unfortunate skull. “ _ O,  _ she  _ doth teach _ the  _ torches _ to  _ burn bright! _ ” Her voice was comically deep at times, cracking and squeaking like a pubescent boy’s at others. Luke could hear Rey snort from the stage.

Leia sighed as she leaned against the back of the chair. “I wish Jason and Angie were still here. They would kick  _ ass  _ at Romeo and Juliet.”

“You wrote their letters of recommendation, Leia.”

“I know, I know. They’re onto much brighter and bigger things than Alderaan High, and they better not come back until I’m ready to fucking retire.” Leia sighed. “I might talk to Dawn later tomorrow. Make sure she won’t mind dragging herself out here one more year before she can escape to college.”

“What about Romeo?” Luke asked, eyebrow raised.

“Ugh. I’ll just go with Scott Marks. He was the best of the over-actors, though that’s not saying much. And he’s still a junior, so I might be able to whip him into shape a little better than a senior or a freshman. Even then, I’ll have my work cut out for me.” She got up, groaning a bit. “Fuck, I hate getting old.”

Luke stood as well, just as slowly. He craned his neck and asked, “How’s it going, Rey? You got the numbers down?”

“Yeah,” Rey said, taking off her headphones as rock ‘n’ roll blared from it. “Almost done.”

The door to the theatre creaked open, and everyone looked up. Poe Dameron stood there, arm still in a sling from his accident earlier that month. In his hand was a beat-up library book. His curls were messy, and his eyes darted about the room. “I’m sorry I’m really late, Mrs. Organa. You aren’t still doing auditions, are you?”

Leia and Luke glanced at each other. She looked over at him, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Depends. What are you auditioning for?”

Poe paused, body stiff. “Romeo?”

Both the teachers’ eyebrows went up. Poe was a jock, not the drama class type. Never even showed up to one of the school plays. “Oh?” Leia asked.

“Yeah. Like...I always wanted to act, but Papa wanted me to play sports. And then I got onto the varsity team and never had the time. And then, well...” He gestured to his sling. “You know.”

“You think you can do it?” Leia asked.

“The doctor said I should be better before Thanksgiving break--”

“I’m not talking about the arm, Poe.” Leia assessed him sternly.

Poe stiffened again but then nodded. “I do, Mrs. Organa.”

“Okay. Let me find my copy of the script. Rey, if you could take a break and let him do his thing, please.” Leia turned to her pile of papers and sifted through them as Poe approached the stage, smile returning to his face. Rey frowned as she trod from the stage, gathering up her notebook and measuring tape as she moved her headphones down to her neck, holding everything close to her chest like she wanted them to melt into her baggy brown sweater. 

Leia started cursing as she looked through her papers. “Fucking A. I left the script in my office.” She turned to Poe as he started going up the steps. “You don’t happen to have another copy, do you?”

“No, ma’am,” Poe said.

“And I’m guessing you don’t have it memorized, do you?”

Poe shook his head. “I don’t think so, ma’am.”

Leia sighed. “Damn it.”

“Can I still do it?” Poe asked. 

As Leia hesitated, trying to think if going up to her office and back was really worth it, Luke interrupted, “Rey, why don’t you read it with him?”

Rey, who was just settling into a seat on the opposite side of the stage, looked at him like he’d sprouted a second head.

“Actually,” Leia said, “that’s not a bad idea. You know the thing pretty well anyways, Rey. You’ve been in my class. Why don’t you go up and read the part with him? I’ll just do the dance scene. It’ll take a few minutes.”

Rey hesitated, then nodded, setting her things down on the neighboring seat with frustrated hands. She followed Poe to center stage, stomping slightly.

“Don’t kill him while you’re up there, that’s his job,” Luke joked.

Poe offered an awkward smile before he flipped to Act I, Scene V. He knew she had good reason to hate him. Guilt twisted in his stomach as he remembered the sound of his friends laughing as she stood at the front of Mr. Tarkin’s history class, sobbing in her hands. Even now, his mouth still felt like someone had superglued his lips together.

Rey moved close to him, and she sucked in her breath as they touched while she held on side of the book. She wore a persistent frown before looking up to glare Leia and Luke down, damning them.

Leia sat, pen hovering above a fresh page in her legal pad. “Alright. You may begin.”

Poe took a deep breath, dark brown eyes glancing to the page. He spoke, stuttering at first. But then, beneath the nervousness, a surprising tenderness the teachers had seen from star quarterback Dameron 5 emerged. He spoke the line “ _ To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss _ ,” like he was speaking to the most beautiful person he’d ever met. Rey’s annoyance had faded into nerves, and she fiddled with one of her curls as she waited for her line, ears turning pink at the tips.

Then Rey spoke. Again, she was stumbling at first. But she, too, quickly melted into something new. Suddenly, her head was high and shoulders squared as she turned coy and almost flirtatious. She even glanced up from the book at Poe, staring him dead in the eyes as she said, “ _ And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss _ .”

“ _ Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? _ ” Poe replied, eyes connected to Rey’s. Leia should’ve figured he was just nervous when he said he didn’t have it memorized.

“ _ Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer _ ,” Rey retorted, tilting her head coquettishly.

When Poe replied, “ _ O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; _ ” he inched ever closer. Rey inched backward too, but not the awkward full tilt back ‘til she stumbled to the ground that she’d done before when someone tried to make a move. It wasn’t pulling away from him; it was trying to pull him forward. And when she responded, “ _ Saint do not move, though grant for prayer’s sake, _ ” they were mere inches apart. She smiled, and Poe’s eyes darted down to the dimples in her cheeks, just above the corners of her lips. The look in his eyes was not the teenage-boy pillaging lust, but a desire that was surprisingly innocent, surprisingly true.

“ _ Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take, _ ” said Poe, lips so could Rey could feel his breath on hers. “ _ Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged. _ ”

Rey smiled more, the grin reaching her eyes, making them crinkle in a way that made Poe’s skin feel like it was buzzing, alight. “ _ Then have my lips the sin that they have took. _ ” Her voice was soft, so faint Leia could barely hear it. The teacher craned her neck, notes abandoned.

Poe’s face in response, lit up with a silly grin that was somehow more handsome than his trademark charming look, made Rey forget she had to breathe in order to live. “ _ Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again. _ ”

“ _ You kiss by the book. _ ”

For a moment, all they could hear was their breathing; all they could see was the other’s eyes. The only thing bringing them down to space was the thunderous applause of two teachers, and the two separated like they’d gotten an electric shock, cheeks warm as an inferno. Leia and Luke were both grinning widely.

“That was amazing. You’ve got the part.”

“Really?” Poe’s eyes widened as his smile returned.

“Yep. Both of you. I’ll be officially putting the cast list up on Friday, but if you don’t see both your names on the cast list, send me to a nuthouse because I’ve gone insane.”

Rey’s eyebrows rose as she stepped back suddenly. “ _ Both _ of our names?”

Luke shook his head. “Rey, you already know that play by heart, and you are an absolute natural. You deserve the part, absolutely. No one else could do...well,  _ that. _ ” He gestured to the two of them.

“Rey,  _ please _ . You were there for the other auditions. You know what I’m working with here.” Leia sighed, arms crossed. “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. But I don’t think anyone could replicate what you have. What you  _ both _ have.”

Rey glanced sideways at Poe, glaring. Her bob of curls shook along with her head as her eyes went down, arms crossing. Poe looked away, trying to give her a smile. He almost told her he’d rather do it with her than with Dawn or Jessica or any of the other girls he’d heard auditioned earlier today. But he didn’t want to force their already tenuous connection.

She sighed, eyes rolling. “I am only doing this because of you, Leia. But you make a big deal out of this, and I’m quitting.”

Leia grinned. “I’ll do my damnedest, Rey.” She nodded. “Good show, both of you. I can’t wait to work with you both.”


	2. fresh as the bright blue sky

Poe came home on the town bus, the old thing rattling like wind chimes made out of bumpers. Times like these made him miss his car. But it was alright. The bus was almost empty, and Poe had room to set his backpack beside him and lean up against it until he got to the stop a block away from his house. The neat suburban neighborhood was well-lit as it was getting darker, and Poe stuck his free hand in his pocket to grab his house key and to protect it from the autumnal chill that he could never withstand. 

The small, two-bedroom house with the faded yellow paint was dim. Papa wasn’t coming home until late again. Another long shift working the beat, or maybe a case he had that was nagging at him. Poe never knew; they didn’t talk about his job. That used to be Mama’s thing. Instead, he unlocked the deadbolt and handle, dropping his backpack to the floor as he turned on the lights. Cooing, he called over Baby-8, the fluffy orange and white cat with the single blue eye, and picked him up like a baby, holding him to his chest as he purred. 

Normally, Poe cooked for Papa, but the anxiety of the day, followed by the conflicted relief from the audition, made his body feel like lead. Instead, he grabbed the landline and punched in the phone number for Papa’s favorite pizza place and took out the fake book Kes normally used to hide the spare cash. Ever since the car accident, Poe had realized Papa was a lot more understanding of his exhaustion than he thought. He remembered being in the hospital, trying to leave early because he had to go to the gym, practice, stay in shape. And he remembered his father gently placing two strong hands on his shoulders, looking Poe in the eyes, and saying in hushed Spanish with tears creeping up in his voice, “ _ Poe, please, rest. _ ”

So, Poe sat on the couch with Baby-8 curled next to him and forgot about time as he stared at some inane soap opera on the TV. The only time he got up was to pay the pizza guy and set the box on the coffee table, unopened.

The door unlocked and creaked open and shut as Kes walked in. The older man had his jacket on, humming to himself as he set his keys on the table by the door. He looked at the box, looked at the television, looked at his son. “ _ Is it a pizza night? _ ” he asked.

Poe looked up, nodding. Not saying much else. Baby-8 sat up, mrowing at Kes.

Kes’s eyebrows flicked up, and he sat down next to Poe on the worn leather couch, opening the box. “ _ Not hungry? _ ”

“ _ Not yet, _ ” Poe replied.

“ _ Bad television shows, pizza you haven’t touched, holding the cat, and you’re not saying a word. What’s wrong, Poe? _ ”

Poe didn’t move, but his dark eyes traveled to Kes as he grabbed a slice of the meat lover’s pizza and ate. “ _ It’s a long story, Papa, _ ” he said slowly.

“ _ We have time. Unless you’re about to fall asleep. _ ”

With a sigh, Poe sat up, turning off the TV. He took off his shoes and put his feet on the couch so he could turn and better face his father. Baby-8 settled in his lap. “ _ Papa, you remember Rey Skywalker? _ ”

Kes nodded. It was hard not to -- Mama and Leia had gone to the same high school, same college, so they knew the Skywalkers through her.

“ _ Well, when she first came in, something happened. And I didn’t do anything about it. _ ” When Kes raised an eyebrow but said nothing, Poe continued, voice slow. “ _ She and I had the same history class first thing when she transferred to our school. And Mister Tarkin introduced her to the class and wanted her to tell her story to everyone. She started to, but she was very nervous. And she started to cry. And all of my friends saw this and started laughing. One of them called her Crywalker and the only reason they stopped was because she ran out of the room in tears. _ ”

Kes’s face was solemn. “ _ And you didn’t do anything? _ ”

“ _ No, Papa. That’s the problem. _ ” Poe felt his whole body slump.

“ _ Ah. _ ” He frowned. “ _ Did you apologize? _ ”

Poe looked away, pressing his face against the warm back of the couch. “ _ No. I never did. Every time I got the chance, I couldn’t get it out. _ ”

“ _ Will you be working with her on the show? Luke has mentioned she makes the...what is the word? The moving bits in the background? _ ”

“The sets?” Poe said in English.

“ _ Yes, those.  _ The sets.”

Poe shook his head. “ _ No, uh...I went to the auditions really late because I was scared. And she read Juliet’s parts with me and we both got cast. _ ”

“ _ Oh? _ ”

“ _ It was really good, is the thing. It was like nothing else in the world mattered. We weren’t us; we were the characters. And she knew so much and she played Juliet so well, but...as soon as we stop, I can tell she hates me. And I don’t know how to fix it because I want to... _ ” He stopped, not sure how to express how he felt about her, in either English or Spanish.

“I see what you mean,” said Papa in English, grabbing another slice. He reached over and scratched Baby-8 on the forehead. “You should try talking to her. Apologize. I can tell this really bothers you. At the very least, you can get it off your chest. Whether or not she accepts is up to her.” He shrugged and took another bite of pizza. It was greasy, and the cheese was all congealed.

“I will,” Poe said, nodding. He turned so he could grab a slice of pizza. “ _ Thank you, Papa _ .”

“ _ You’re welcome, Poe _ .” Kes ruffled Poe’s hair before reaching over to grab the remote. “ _ How about we watch a movie? _ ”

“Ghostbusters?” Poe asked, straightening up a little as he bit into the mostly cold pizza.

Kes grinned. “Perfect,” he said as he stood to grab the tape from the stack.

* * *

Luke knocked on the door of Rey’s room. Well, it was technically a shed. She appreciated his letting her move in with him, but his one-bedroom bachelor pad was not equipped for a teenage girl, and they had no money to upgrade or expand beyond remodeling his old shed to work as a room. She didn’t mind much beyond the leaky roof and the winter cold. Rey sighed as she took off her headphones, stopping the tape. “You can come in,” she said, tired.

The door creaked open -- that was another thing, the hinges were permanently rusted -- and Luke sighed, ducking into the shed. He had a box of batteries. “You said you were running low?”

Rey nodded, taking the batteries and putting them into her bag under the bed. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

Luke nodded, sitting at the foot of her bed. “How are you feeling?” he asked. His voice was not his usual high and chipper tone, but more tired and gravelly.

“Okay, I guess.” She shrugged, sitting up more so she didn’t have to lean too much on her curlers and potentially ruin her hair. 

“You alright after the whole audition thing?” Luke asked.

“Not terrible.” Rey shrugged. “Just...feeling weird.”  _ Weird _ was an understatement. She felt like she’d transformed into an entirely different person onstage. She was not Juliet, however, just as Poe was not Romeo. It was like she had become a doppelganger, someone who was confident and flirty and didn’t have a venomous resentment towards Poe Dameron. At the same time, some stupid part of her brain agreed. She had tried to imagine that first day of real high school as she drove home, when Mr. Tarkin dragged her up in front of a class of twenty strangers to tell her sob story. The sounds of their laughter at her nervousness, the giggles at her sobs, the nickname  _ Crywalker _ being chanted like a pep rally cheer all resounded in her skull as she gripped the steering wheel. She recalled that time, trying to find Poe in the memories. He was in the center of the classroom, surrounded by rowdy friends in their varsity jackets and nice clothes, faces lit up with the power of their act.

But he was sitting silent, frozen and tense like he didn’t want to be there.

As much as she tried to picture the laughs or grins she had seen in odd moments throughout the months since, peppered in the hallway or the cafeteria when she had passed by unnoticed, she couldn’t see him doing that in that classroom at that moment. He looked miserable, face contorted in pain and nervousness, eyes downwards, unable to watch.

It almost made her feel bad.

But when she arrived home, her car parked in the driveway as Luke pulled in not too far behind her, she remembered he didn’t do shit to help either and felt a little less bad.

But only a little.

“You know, if you want to say no--”

“No,” Rey said, shaking her head. “I made a promise to stay. And I will.” No matter how stupidly sad Poe Dameron looks whenever he sees her. No matter how pretty his stupid lovestruck grin is when he’s speaking poetry. No matter how terribly her heart thuds when she feels his breath on her skin. No matter how clearly she recalls every time the play mentions kissing, and no matter how soft Poe’s lips look.

Luke nodded. “Thanks, kid.” He sighed, getting up slowly. “Lando’s coming by tonight.”

“Is that why you got me new batteries for my Walkman?” Rey joked, raising an eyebrow.

“ _ No _ ,” Luke protested. He and Rey locked eyes. “Maybe.”

Rey giggled. “Go have fun. Break open that wine you’ve been saving, because otherwise, you aren’t going to use it--”

  
“ _ Good night, Rey _ ,” Luke said, closing the door with a heft.


End file.
